United v Sheffield United: Player ratings

April 17, 2007

Kuszczak: Did not suffer any heart-stopping moments 6

Fletcher: Nothing too flash from the Scot, just a solid effort 6

Brown: Had one or two difficult moments containing the dangerous Shelton 6

Heinze: His usual `all arms and legs' defending kept the Blades blunted 6

Evra: Had hardly got into game before injury forced him off 5

Ronaldo: Went through his repertoire of tricks to entertain crowd 7

Carrick: United's man of the first half, scoring a well-taken goal 7

Scholes: Allowed Carrick the stage before the interval, then stepped it up 7

Giggs: Mixed bag from the skipper on his 500th league appearance 6

Rooney: Once he cooled down, he was a right pain for Sheffield 7

Smith: Deserved a goal for his stoic efforts leading the line 6

SUBSTITUTES

Richardson: (Evra, 20) Had to be told to temper adventure - 5

Solskjaer: (Giggs 80). No time to earn a mark

Not USED: Van der Sar, O'Shea, Cathcart

Sheffield UNITED: Kenny, Morgan, Jagielka, Shelton (Nade 89), Webber, Kozluk (Armstrong 77), Kilgallon, Montgomery, Tonge, Geary, Kazim-Richards (Gillespie 74)

Bookings: United: Smith (29), Rooney (42), Ronaldo (65). Sheff Utd: Geary (16), Morgan (65), Armstrong (83)

Referee: Rob Styles - Inconsistent with punishments - 5

Attendance: 75,540

Agree with the ratings? Have your say.

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United 2 Sheffield United 0

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Hugh Jarse, Australia (17/04/2007 at 23:58)

A good result. Looks like JOS is ready to return and perhaps Neville could be right for Boro. If Rio is avalable and Evra not too serious then we get the makings of a solid defense back again for our run in.

This means DF can be available for a MF role along with Carrick and Scholes which will give us more options.

I believe that we can beat Boro and I am hoping that West ham can do something to take points off the bleating sheep 'Merino's' men

Paulo (18/04/2007 at 00:05)

that'll do fine. Richardson showing once again what a waste of space he is.

Davey Boy, Kuwait (18/04/2007 at 06:41)

Ratings who cares although for me shelton (who the hell is he) gave wes a torrid time and heinze was lucky as that was a penalty...little bit surprised at how uncomfortable they were as, maybe hienze best position after all is FB. Also ref should have given us a penalty for that ridiculous hand off, also thought rooney was going to go but thanks to half time and a truely excellent goal everything worked out anyway it is now all about results if we play crap and win every game who cares!

bobbydazzler (18/04/2007 at 08:34)

alias and mick this one is for you. for the 3rd consecutive match fletcher did a good job. ther ive said it.

terry (18/04/2007 at 08:36)

Pretty fair comments. No-one was outstanding, but they didn't have to be. Won at a canter. Carrick continued to prove he is the business (OK own up, who ever doubted it?); Fletcher was again competent; I would have given MOM to Wazza but he's srill got this fatal flaw and I thought Rob Styles was very patient despite a torrent of abuse. (Mind you, he never gives United a thing). So I guess Carrick/Scholes would shave MOM betwen them. Finally, if we'd put out this team a year ago, we'd have been buried. A testament to the manager and the motivation. Surely we'll do it now. Cheers.

Birdy, Ireland (18/04/2007 at 08:54)

I think Ronaldo and Giggs could have been bumped up another mark. The worst mark of the lot though is for the ref, he doesnt deserve a 5. I've never critisised a ref on here before, but he last night he was all over the place. How there wasnt a booking for the foul on Evra i dont know. Its was a tackle from behind for starters. He then did that strange things refs do - they let a few bad tackles go and then punish the next innocuous challenge with a card to apparently stamp their authority. His decisions were generally bizarre. As for the penalty Heinze should have given away, it was as blatant as you hope to see. Overall a difficult game for us against a negative team and not helped by a fussy incinsistent ref. Could have been a real banana skin

edinburgh red, edinburgh (18/04/2007 at 09:13)

Brown deserved about 5 he was skinned by there forward everytime he got running at him, Fletch deserved a higher mark (cant believe i said that)as he is playing in an unusual role. I'm glad that rio is back soon as I would hate to be facing a big team with wes and gaby as cb's.Happy with the win as we were in 2nd gear all night but if they had got the penatly who knows if we could have found it that easy to step up.

chris, oxford (18/04/2007 at 09:22)

Smudger gets a 10 for landing one on DF after Carrick had scored ;-) Everybody else I kind of agree with.

Lee , Heywood, Heywood (18/04/2007 at 09:42)

Difficult game but we won and move on to the next. Never seen man marking carried out like that on a professional football pitch. 4 players followed Giggs,Scholes,Rooney and Ronaldo even when they had the ball. They came to get beat and deserved to. Why do Sky spend half an hour analysing every decision when its in Uniteds favour ?? Half an hour on the Skelton penalty. Was it a penalty ? Yes. Rooney first half. Was it a penalty ? Yes. One gets debated for half an hour the other doesnt get a mention. Away to Portsmouth were 1-0 down at half time then about 30 seconds into the second half Rooney is a yard onside and scores. Disallowed for off side. Any mention ?? No chance. Even Ronaldos penalty at home to Boro was debated for half an hour when everyone agreed it was a penalty. To use Ronnies words, Why with United is it always polemic? Maybe its because we are too good. As for the ratings and game Carrick was again qaulity and great goal (dont be smug Terry it doesnt suit also take a look who watched Micheal Tonge shoot from the edge of the box and hit the bar without even putting a challenge in) Giggs was MoM for me while Scholes Rooney and Ronaldo were all good despite having shadows for 90 minutes.

Macca, Cornwall (18/04/2007 at 09:58)

thought wes brown was really poor last night, he was too laid back and isnt in the same as league as Rio so cant afford to be like that. i know it was a makeshift back line but he was the only one playing his natural position and was the worst of the lot. Ref did have a shocker, wazza needs to stop getting involved with silly yellows, he is on 8 now so 2 more and he'll miss a couple of games which would be a big blow. hopefully have rio and o'shea back for saturday otherwise i can see yak and fat mark causing us a few problems. carrick had another good game, scholes controlled it 2nd half some great passes.

Danny, Wilmslow (18/04/2007 at 10:05)

Agree bad ref,I would mark all the players higher apartfrom Brown who was falling aslee at times,seems easy to turn him the wrong way.

george (18/04/2007 at 10:12)

To be fair it was a certain penalty,but also to be fair the ref could not see the ball or the tackle from where he was.The linesmens view also was not clear enough to say it was a penalty.They can only give it if they see it.We were lucky they simply couldn't see it on this occasion.

bobbydazzler (18/04/2007 at 11:12)

strange comments about brown i thought he did quite well. the guy i was really concerned about was gabby who was less than solid on a number of occasions

Mick, Dublin (18/04/2007 at 11:34)

Our defenders were all over the place but I thought Heinze actually emerges with some credit.

Wes Brown really is an enigma to me. Sometimes he looks like an awesome defender and for most of last season he was one of our best players. But then he puts in 90 minutes where he plays like a school-boy. His uncertainty affected the whole back-line (not helped by two midfielders playing out of positions) and I think Gabby bailed us out time and time again, while Wes was having his (strawberry) blonde moments (but let's not mention the peno, eh?).

The rest of the team did fairly well, they played within themselves and did what had to be done. I thought Ronnie was the pick of the bunch. The combination of Sheffield persisting with their man-marking tactics and the early goal ensured our win but ruined the game as a spectacle. I've warmed to Warnock this season but that was a bit of a disgrace.

Referee was terrible. The only thing consistent about him was his inconsistence and the way he handled the players came across as patronising in the extreme, no wonder they were getting wound up.

That said, Wazza needs to wind his neck in. A 2-match ban at this stage of the season would be a huge blow and if he had got a second yellow for back-chat, he would have nobody to blame but himself.

Seeing as Lampard is allowed to play with a cast on his arm, I wonder if Fergie should ask the FA if he can send Rooney out wearing a gag?

Frank Old Trafford (18/04/2007 at 11:37)

Flippin' heck Bobby, we're going to have to make you the president of the I love darren club! Pack it in will ya, there are enough lovechild worshippers out there already!

saha rocks, work (18/04/2007 at 12:02)

Giggs 6??? Surely a 7 or 8 is more merited. And Scholes was no better than 6. He's looking strangely subdued since since his sending off in Rome. The rest of the ratings I tend to agree with.

bobbydazzler (18/04/2007 at 12:09)

frank as you well know it pains me greatly to have to say the lad did well but fairs fair he has done ok in the last 3 games. he still has a lot to do to prove he is good enough for our squad though

chris, oxford (18/04/2007 at 12:19)

Cant help but agree with you again Mick!

stu, london (18/04/2007 at 12:39)

Really think Carrick is coming into his own at this vital stage of the season. That's five goals now, more than he's ever scored in one season before. If he can up that towards the 10 mark next year we'll have some player. Let's see how Chelskov react tonight at the Irons.

Lee , Heywood, Heywood (18/04/2007 at 14:21)

Totally agree Stu I thought Carrick was class again last night.

Mick, Dublin (18/04/2007 at 16:24)

I think those 5 goals are more than the total goals he's scored in the Premiership over his entire career! Which speaks volumes about how much his game is coming along in a United shirt.

Dave May, Durham (20/04/2007 at 18:30)

Carrick was HUGE. Getting that first strike in 4 minutes set the stage for the whole match.

Rock on !!!

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